Meet Kelly Jaske

At the U.S. Half Marathon Championships last Sunday, Kelly Jaske, a 32-year-old graduate of Harvard Law School, was a big question mark. She wasn’t ranked; she hadn’t run many large road races. She was just a tall runner wearing bib# 13F—a classic dark horse. In fact, in 2006, Jaske was a 3:03 marathoner. She hadn’t even run under 2:50 until last year. She never ran competitively in high school or college. She didn’t fit the mold.

As the race unfolded on Sunday, she found herself within striking distance of winning it all. After Jaske crossed the line in 1:12:06, good for second place, the announcers scrambled to find out who she was. Until recently, she had been self-coached—training with the Red Lizard Running Club in Portland, Oregon. After watching her run a sub-27;00 8K in Eugene in January, Brad Hudson noticed her potential and offered to coach her.

Jaske is now the runner-up to represent the U.S. at the World Half Marathon championships in Birmingham, England this fall. Running Times caught up with her a few days after her incredible race.

Running Times: You started out as a fitness runner and evolved into a 1:12 half marathoner—an incredible accomplishment. Describe that transformation.

Kelly Jaske: I started jogging to go backpacking one summer. I remember I was so proud of myself when I ran my first 4 miles without having to walk. That was how I started: I just wanted to get into shape. I had been jogging a few years and then I started running with some people at the law firm where I worked, and just running with them made me see that there is this other side of it—racing to compete instead of just having fun things to shoot for. Running with those folks really inspired me. They made me want to get faster; that’s really what changed it. Frankly, had it not been for them, I’d still be just out doing my jogs. It made it something totally different for me. It has turned from something that I did just to stay in shape into something that matters, and I love it.

Are your friends at the law firm afraid to race you now?

KJ: [laughing] Oh heck no. I’m sure they are just out for blood trying to take me down.

As a Harvard Law graduate, do you feel that the same discipline it took to make it through that rigorous program help you complete 100-mile weeks as a competitive runner?

KJ: I guess I’m pretty competitive and so, when I do things, I like to do them well. I suppose once I focused on running, I wanted to become as good as I could be and not struggle along, doing a lousy job of it. I think maybe that’s the main reason that I started running harder and working out with people that I wanted to compete against. It was a natural progression from that.

Taking into account the fact that you stumbled upon running later in your life, do you have any regrets for not discovering your potential earlier in your career—say in high school or college?

KJ: No. It’s a funny thing: I’ve always found things that I’ve enjoyed and found interesting in my life, and I definitely don’t regret spending the time when I was younger on them. I love doing this. Better to find it now that never.

How do you balance your day job with your training?

KJ: I just get up early and run in the morning, go to work, and then run at night. It’s like anything else: You can make time for what matters. I think everyone does that in their lives. Some people have kids, and I don’t. I know having kids takes a lot of time and is a big commitment, and so they make time for that. I make time for this. I think everyone does it in their own way.

From a weekly schedule standpoint, how are you breaking up your training? Are you doing the traditional Tuesday/Thursday workouts with a long run on Sunday?

KJ: I had been doing track workouts on Tuesday and Thursday, but then Brad [Hudson] switched those to Tuesday and Friday and a long run on the weekend. Now that I have switched my second workout to Friday, my long run is on Sunday.During the Houston Half Marathon last weekend, did you ever feel like you didn’t belong up there with the leaders?

KJ: No. The training has been going well and the pace felt okay. Had it been blazingly fast and had I tried to hang with people that would have been quite different, but it felt OK. It didn’t get intimidating like that.

What are your long-term goals?

KJ: I want to work as hard as I can and run as fast as I can before I get old and crotchety. That’s not long in running terms. [She laughs.] I figure given that I’m already 32, I do kind of have limited time and I want to make the most of it.

Do you have any training partners or do you run mostly alone?

KJ: I live in Portland. It’s a wonderful place to run—a real active community. I run with a group called the Red Lizards. Ever since I moved out here, I’ve been running with folks. I’ve met a lot of local people who are really good runners. They have been fabulous. There are a lot of good people to train with here.

Describe your relationship with your coach. How much time do you spend where he’s actually working with you?

KJ: I’ve only been with Brad a few weeks. It’s quite new. Up to Houston, I did a workout with him once a week for the past three weeks. He’s great. He calls up every night to check up and make sure nothing hurts. He gives me a week’s worth of workouts at a time and then checks in every evening to see how it’s going.

For your half marathon preparation, what kind of workouts were you doing?

KJ: On my own, I was doing shorter, 1-mile repeats, and then the first of the three workouts that I did with [Hudson], I ran a set of 800s. Then I went down and did 2 x 3-mile: the first 3-mile repeat was on a bark trail and the last 3 miles were on the track. On the third workout, he came up to Portland and I ran a track 10K.

What was your peak mileage before you tapered for Houston?

KJ: I was doing like 120 miles a week, but when Brad came along, he took my mileage down to 100 miles.

How has your body been adjusting to running over 100 miles a week?

KJ: OK. When I first started running that kind of mileage, I felt kind of tired, you know, I’d get to work and immediately grab a cup of coffee—that kind of feeling.

By taking your running career from the level it was, to where it is now, you’ve undoubtedly inspired a lot a people—people that are probably saying, “If she can do it, I can too.” How does it feel to be a source of inspiration, and do you have any tips for folks who want to take their running to another level?

KJ: For me to inspire anyone would be an honor, because so many people have inspired me to work hard. If I can pass that along, it would be repaying the same folks who have done the same for me during the past couple of years. That would be wonderful. I hope it continues—for folks to do the same for others down the road. As for my advice to runners, all I can say is that I just went out there and started running more and was lucky enough to find people who were fast and made it seem normal to get faster. There was no magic; it was just go out there and run more miles and keep trying harder. That was it.

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